Project Associate – Pratham Open School

Project Background

The Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) has over the last 8 years been showing that learning levels are low in the country – only about 50% of std. 5 children can read at std. 2 level. In fact, the last 2 years has witnessed a drop in learning levels. Similar low learning levels have been observed in the age group of 15-16 years in the PISA study 2009, where two states of India, Tamil Nadu and Himachal Pradesh, were ranked lowest in terms of children’s ability in Math, Language and Science. As a result of these low learning levels, children drop-out of school before appearing for the std. 10 examination and many others who appear for the std. 10 examinations fail to clear it.

Accessibility adds to the problem of drop-outs. While India has about 1 million primary and upper primary schools catering to the needs of 210 million children in the 6-14 years age group, there are only 100,000 secondary schools catering to 84 million children in 15-16 years age group.As a result, a single secondary school might cater to as much as 10 villages and many times even more. This problem gets magnified for girls due to the various socio-cultural conditions that exist in India.

Cognizant to this problem, Pratham decided to step in through an innovative solution called the Pratham Open School(POS). Through the POS, Pratham aims to assist drop-outs in rural areas to complete their secondary school examinations while simultaneously providing them with soft skills to support them in the future. The model of implementation aims to tackle both, the problem of accessibility as well as that of low learning levels.

About Pratham

Pratham was born in Mumbai as the Pratham Mumbai Education Initiative in 1994-95. Over the last eighteen years, Pratham has grown and evolved as it sought to realize its vision of “every child in school and learning well”. It did so by attempting to build a “societal mission” to understand, own, and solve problems of education.Initially, it tackled the problem of lack of pre-school or early childhood education in Mumbai but it has now grown into a network of organizations with complex structures and dealing with different aspects of universal education.

Through its flagship Read India program, Pratham attempts to address the problems in primary education by mobilizing and engaging communities and the government (local, state and central level). Pratham currently reaches 2.2 million children in more than 25,000 villages spread across 20 states through the Read India Program. More than 62,000 unpaid volunteers, mostly young men and women, provide after-school or in some places in-school support to children who are struggling in school.

Pratham is a widely recognized organization, having received notable awards such as the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship, the Henry R Kravis Prize in Leadership and the CNN-IBN Indian of the Year for Public Service. For more details, refer to

Position Summary

The Associate Position in the Pratham Open School Program offers young, motivated people the opportunity to support and build a sustainable Pratham Open School intervention. This person will be responsible for functions related to review, support, data management and donor management within the project. Associates will play the aforementioned roles for two or more States, and will be based out of Ahmedabad, Gujarat with frequent travel to Rajasthan, and other states whenever the need arises.

Key Responsibilities

Program Review and Support

  • Review Pratham’s program implementation through data analysis and regular field visits to understand the extent to which Pratham has achieved its programmatic goals, and identify gaps
  • Support program teams in strengthening implementation such that the aforementioned gaps are addressed and mitigated
  • Assess effectiveness of Pratham’s teaching methodology in the state/region
  • Track quantitative/operational program data over time
  • Train program staff on maintaining data, documenting case studies and conducting regular reviews
  • Assist in state program planning and creation of budgets; analyze financial performance
  • Track progress of various components of the program with regards to implementation, review, etc.
  • Manage partnerships with external evaluation agencies, whenever needed
  • Develop grant proposals and reports for donors and government
  • Conduct donor specific studies and analysis

National Responsibilities

  • Informational and programmatic sharing across Pratham and possibly other education organizations through Program Support team meetings, cross-state visits to other regions and through workshops or talks at other NGOs
  • Manage all program communication information including periodic updates, case studies and documentation such as the POS Annual report
  • Quarterly or Six-Monthly Program Review: Conduct internal review of the program with participation from CEO, program head, state coordinators, content team, etc.

Qualification & Skills

Required:

  • 1 – 2 years of work experience
  • Willingness to travel regularly and extensively in rural areas of India, with limited amenities
  • Ability to build rapport with people from various different academic, socio-economic and cultural backgrounds
  • Ability to communicate, both verbally and in written, in Hindi. Knowledge of Gujarati will be an added benefit
  • Fluency and excellent written and oral communication skills in English
  • Strong quantitative and analytical skills
  • Good academic track record from a good college
  • Ability to work well in teams
  • Self-motivation and pro-activeness to drive processes and reviews
  • Ability to organize and manage multiple tasks efficiently
  • Strong work ethic and attention to detail
  • Keenness to keep oneself constantly updated on the broader educational context in assigned States and in India
  • Willingness to commit to 2-3 years of work with Pratham

Preferred:

  • Ability to communicate in Gujarati
  • Experience living and working in a developing country
  • Previous experience teaching or working in schools/education

Remuneration

  • 25,000 INR per month, flexible depending on qualifications and experience
  • Travel expenses incurred for Pratham will be reimbursed
  • No additional perks/allowances

Application Process

Email the following as two documents to

  1. Current Resume, containing the following information:
  • Contact Information for Applicant
  • Academic Background
  • Universities Attended, Degrees Acquired
  • Academic Record (Marks or GPA as applicable)
  • Standardized Test Scores (If applicable)
  • Relevant Coursework: List Courses in Development, Management, and Education, and Grades Received
  • Relevant experience specifically in project management and data analysis
  • Experiences in development, teaching and/or education (if applicable)
  • Languages Spoken
  1. Statement of Purpose (500 Words)

Closing date for applications is April 1, 2013.